Inputs for electronic devices (e.g., personal computers, lap-top computers, PDAs, cellular telephones, etc.) are routinely used every day by millions of people. The most common input device is a keyboard. The keyboard most commonly used today is the QWERTY keyboard. The name of the QWERTY keyboard is derived from the first six alphabetical characters on the left side of the first row of letters on the keyboard.
The QWERTY keyboard was developed in the late 1860's for the first mechanical typewriter and was subsequently patented by Christopher Sholes in 1878. Due to the mechanical complexity of first typewriters, the keyboard was intentionally designed to prevent the user from rapidly pressing consecutive keys, as this would jam the machine. As such, the arrangement of the keys on the QWERTY keyboard resulted from an accommodation to the mechanical nature of the first typewriters and not from an effort to ensure the efficient transfer of information by the keyboard user.
The QWERTY keyboard has been used as an input means since the development of the very first electronic devices. However, with the development of smaller, portable electronic devices, use of the QWERTY keyboard with these devices has certain drawbacks. As electronic devices have become smaller through advances in integrated circuitry, the traditional QWERTY keyboard is simply too large for many of the smaller electronic devices as the keyboard must be large enough to accommodate both hands of the user. Moreover, due the large size of the traditional keyboard, it is not sufficiently portable for use in conjunction with many of these electronic devices. Previous attempts to overcome this short coming of the keyboard have included the use of foldable keyboards as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,097 and the use of keyboards that allow for the direct connection of the electronic device to a full-size portable QWERTY keyboard as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,200. However, neither of these approaches reduces the area required for the use of the keyboard.
The miniaturization of many electronic devices has allowed them to be designed such that they can be operated with only a single hand of the user or has made their use incompatible with a full-sized QWERTY keyboard. Because the QWERTY keyboard was developed for two-handed use with the original typewriter, it can not be readily adapted for efficient use by only a single hand, or one or both thumbs when used in conjunction with many electronic devices. Moreover, the size of the standard QWERTY keyboard, which can have in excess of 100 keys, often limits its versatility and utility as an input device. Prior attempts to circumvent those drawbacks of the QWERTY keyboard have included the use of a stylus in conjunction with a touch-screen display or other pressure sensitive surface for data entry. However, stylus-based methods of data entry are typically much slower for entering data, more difficult for users to learn, and have a higher error rate than keyboard-based data entry methods.
An additional drawback to the QWERTY keyboard is that it was designed to accommodate the mechanical components of the first typewriters, as such, the layout of its keys does not facilitate the rapid input of data from the keyboard. Previous attempts to increase the speed and efficiency of data input into an electronic device have included the development and use of voice-recognition software. However, the error rate typically associated with this type of software has thus far prevented its large-scale use as an effective input device.
Another drawback to the traditional QWERTY keyboard is that it has typically only had a single functionality, namely alphanumeric input. However, with the decrease in size of many of electronic devices, additional functions are required from a smaller keyboard that current keyboards cannot accommodate.
Previous attempts to overcome shortcomings of the QWERTY keyboard have included the use of alternative keyboards, such as the standard 12-key arrangement found on most telephone and cellular phones. A drawback of using the standard telephone as a data-input device is the slow rate of input due to use of only a single finger or thumb to activate the keys.